Life in the Express Lane

Stoner Action Flick with a Conscience
By
Morgan P Salvo


The Apatow comedy train chugs along with new installment Pineapple Express. Opening with black and white footage in a secluded underground bunker, we see the Army testing a human experiment, smoking “Item 9”. The subject becomes subversive and they abandon the project. It’s a setup for stoners to laugh at the “evils” of marijuana but later on, even after tons of pot-induced humor, there comes a revelation that things are not always better when high. That’s right, an actual moral.
It takes quite a while to get aforementioned moral. In the meantime we are subjected to so-lame-they’re-funny fight scenes, badly edited car chases, a plethora of 80’s references including a theme song by Huey Lewis, scads of in-joke humor, crazy-things-to-make-us-wonder and…some decent acting. Really.
You cannot get more of a skeletal plot here. Dale Denton (Seth Rogen), a 26 year old process server with an inexplicable high school girlfriend, witnesses a murder while on the job and exits the scene leaving a roach behind with the identifiable quality of Pineapple Express: the ultimate killer weed. Turns out his subpoena target is the dealer to his connection, Saul (James Franco), so they’re soon on the run from cops, drug crime warlords, evil Asians, and whoever else crosses their path. Almost all the dialogue seemed or was ad-libbed, reminiscent of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” but lacking Larry David’s’ Seinfeld-esque plot twists. .

Now I am not usually entertained when I feel like I am forced to laugh at predictable stuff and this stoner action flick is pretty darn stupid, but I have to admit there are some redeemable qualities. I thought James Franco was excellent as the weeded-out dumber-than-dirt dope dealer. Franco previously seemed typecast to play the guy possessed with angst and inner turmoil in most of his characters (Spiderman, Annapolis). It was refreshing to see him in this role of weed-soaked, dim-witted, likable, grinning idiot--it was almost like getting to know Brad Pitt’s character from True Romance. And Danny McBride (Fist Foot Way) as Red, the middle-man drug connection, steals the show playing part tough guy drug dealer part wimp-ass squealer. Rogen, on the other hand, is becoming a parody of himself. He seems to be his own version of Woody Allen, muttering to himself things just for the audience to hear –some funny, some not so much, but all out of desperation and anxiety. Gary Cole (Ted Jones) is a good foil as the evil drug lord who’s as equally as stupid as the rest of the characters. Why Rosie Perez (simply as “female cop” in the credits) agreed to play such a small role is hard to fathom. Supporting actors Kevin Corrigan (Budlosfky) and Craig Robinson (Matheson) as hit men add some spunk. Corrigan is always good; he’s becoming more like Walken in his delivery all the time, and Matheson’s sexually confused shooter is all over the map.

This was a surprising assignment for Director David Gordon Green (Snow Angels/Undertow). His movies have been about painful relationships, resulting in major conflict and violence. Here he’s put to the test helming an action-flick, breaking out the squibs which depict some rough scenes of bloody violence resulting in some real grizzly deaths. But where he shines is guiding the touching moments between Saul and Dale and their insipid relationship-building/male bonding. These scenes coming off like romance novel stereotypes; at times its hilarious and sometimes its just plain creepy. The characters all end up having feelings for each other, but this backfires making room for all kinds of innuendos and then blatant gay references like “bromosexual”. This movie moves into homo-jokes and ultra homo-eroticism for dopes. But played “straight” therein lies the “humor”.
This movie has some absolutely funny one-liners, but by the time you get to the super stupid shoot-out finale and the ultra drawn out ending dialogue, you might have lost interest or the will to find it amusing anymore. The moral of the story may be that things aren’t always better when high, but my bet is that the movie itself would be. Not condoning here—I’m just saying…

Pineapple Express
Starring: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, Gary Cole, Rosie Perez
Director: David Gordon Green.
 2 stars because I laughed really hard...twice.